“Should Kathy Griffin’s punishment for foolish, stupid and blasphemous remarks be the same punishment that a mass murderer might get? I can’t see the justice in that.”...
The problem is that most folks forget that mankind has NO good in him at all. When Adam fell, all of mankind was doomed to sin. God is just and holy; he punishes sin, period. The only way we’re saved is through Jesus’ perfect life and shed blood on the Cross. Christ atones for us — he endured God’s wrath FOR us. If one doesn’t believe in Jesus, and rest on HIS actions for one’s salvation alone, that soul is headed for the punishment that we all deserve.
So, in short — yes, Kathy Griffin’s punishment would be the same as a mass-murder, or any unrepentant sinner no matter how “small” we might see the infraction to be... in God’s eyes, sin is sin and MUST be punished.
Neal
I personally adhere more to the “flawed masterpiece” theory of Humankind and sin myself. We were created perfect, but sin marred us, (and continues to marr us). All this “miserable worm” theology dreamt up by Augustine et al has done some nasty damage in “guilt-tripping” over the centuries.
I know it doesn’t seem very fair Supplysider, for Kathy Griffin’s foolish blasphemy to be equated to the crimes of an Adolph Hitler or a Mao-tse-tung, but remember these things don’t happen in isolation. Kathy Griffins comments, from a spiritual viewpoint, move her just that little bit farther away from God. Every sin, whether of committing or of omission, moves us away from God and His love. Similarly, when we allow ourselves to come to God, either through prayer, or meditation, or study of His word, we draw that little bit closer to Him. Holy living and sin have this in common: they are both habit forming!
So, when Kathy says these things, not only is she moving away from God, she is also making it just that little bit harder to get back to Him, and making it just that bit easier to sin again, and commit “worse” sins (although I wouldn’t like to define such things). From a spiritual viewpoint, that is just the ultimate expression of what your mass-murderer has done. People dont just wake up and think to themselves “I’m going to go and murder lots of people today”. A long time before, there was a hurt, which was brooded upon. A sin, nursed, unforgiven and hence unforgotten. It grows into a contempt for people and eventually into a hatred. And so it goes. The road to hell consists of a multitude of increasingly wrong turns.
Now I’m not saying that Kathy Griffin is going to one day go off and become a suicide bomber or whatever - I dont know what her future holds. I fervently hope and pray she sees the errors of her ways and repents and turns away from the materialistic and hedonistic lifestyle she seems to have chosen. What I do know is that the crimes of the mass murderer and each one of us are not so far removed as you might think. If I think in my heart “I hate you and I wish you were dead”, then from an intent purpose, what exactly is the difference between me and a murderer? It could just simply be that in addition to hating my fellow man I am also too much of a coward to actually do the murdering! At least the murderer lives his convictions!